The Efficient Dungeon Master's Guide
As a Dungeon Master, you'll inevitably encounter moments of burnout along your journey. Dungeon Mastering is a long-term endeavor, and even the most passionate DMs can find themselves in need of a breather.
When you first start a new Dungeons & Dragons campaign as a DM, you're brimming with enthusiasm. You eagerly dive into over-preparation, crafting intricate lore, contemplating character voices, and meticulously designing monsters and encounters for your players. This enthusiasm is a vital ingredient for becoming a skilled DM.
However, there are times when the stars don't align. Life becomes chaotic, leaving little time for preparation. Your players may unpredictably veer off the planned path, or you might simply find yourself lacking inspiration. It's all part of being human and happens to the best of us.
In such moments, fear not. Within this guide, you'll discover sage advice to navigate these challenges. Whether you're looking to simplify your DMing style temporarily or fully embrace a more efficient approach, rest assured that you can still create fantastic D&D (and other TTRPG) sessions without an overwhelming amount of prep work.
1. Use pre-made content:
As I’ve said in other posts, I’m personally not a fan of using pre-made content for my campaigns. Creating the world collaboratively with my players and building it out over time may be my favorite part of being a dungeon master. However, there is no denying that there are many great pre-made adventures available, both official and third-party that you can put to good use. Even if you just dive into them for a session or two, these adventures can save you a lot of time and effort, and they can also be a great way to get ideas for future sessions, and to see other people’s ways of crafting adventures.
There are plenty of free or inexpensive adventure modules available all over the internet, but my favorite place to get them is over at The Dungeon Master’s Guild. There are adventures for all party levels and experience levels. I currently read through one that is perfect for a New DM and a low-level party looking to learn the ropes of 5e. It’s called Prize of the Mountain Prince and was made by AJ aka Pasta_Parade over at the D&D Twitch stream Choose Your Roll. And keep in mind, even if you’re using a pre-made adventure you can alter and tweak things to fit your campaign; you’re the only one reading the adventure, and there’s no penalty for making it your own.
2. Recycle, Reuse, Reinvent:
It may be a bit off-putting, especially if you’re a creative person, which you likely are as a Dungeon Master. However, one of the most effective tricks to making your job easier for a few sessions is recycling content. Don't hesitate to reuse NPCs, settings, or even entire encounters from previous sessions.
Unless players are metagaming – which if they are, shame on them, you gotta put the kibosh on that right away – you can re-skin any monster stat blocks to be whatever you want them to be. That Dryad from session 4, that is now a Druid priest. The Quickling that was in the woods as well is the Druid’s Rogue companion. And the handful of Blights you used are all Druidic guards. Claws are daggers. Needles are arrows. Vine Blights are big brutes who can cast entangle. With a bit of tweaking, your players will be none the wiser, and you'll save valuable prep time.
Another fun way to re-use is literally have the exact same tavern, or magic shop show up in a different city or town. You don’t have to spend time creating anything new and its a fun mystery hook to toss in. Your players can spend a whole session just starting to unravel the mystery.
Do this sparingly, but don’t be afraid to use it from time to time.
3. Now stop, collaborate, and listen:
This is one for every time you are at the table and one of the main pieces of information that every dungeon master should keep in mind, D&D is a collaborative storytelling experience. Don't shoulder the burden of creating the entire narrative yourself. Encourage your players to contribute to the world-building process. Their ideas can breathe life into your campaign, making your job as DM easier and more enjoyable and getting them more invested in the world they are playing in.
Do your best to leave gaps in every session that your players can fill in and put their imprint on. “You walk into The Prancing Pony (*bit of a hint for an upcoming point*). It’s rather busy tonight, lots of folks in for a pint and a bite. Who do you approach and what draws you to them?” Boom, you have a new NPC that your player came up with and their answer to the question can give you a hook for this part of the session. And now, the player is interacting with a person they’re actually intrigued by because they came up with them. Three sessions from now, when that new NPC goes down in a battle, they’re going to feel attached and there will be higher stakes to get them back up.
One tiny caveat to this type of DMing is that you have to hone in on one skill that most every DM needs and we will cover that in the next point.
4. Improvise Like a Pro:
If you spend your time honing one skill as a DM it should be improvisation. Being able to think and act on the spot will make everything you do that much easier. Sometimes, players will throw curveballs that no amount of prep can anticipate. When that happens, remember that it's okay to wing it. Your players won't know if you're making things up on the spot, as long as it feels organic and enjoyable.
The easiest way to get better at improvising is by building a better understanding of the rules of the game, the lore of the world, and having a few random tables at hand for NPC and shop names, item lists, treasures, or whatever you have the most trouble coming up with on the fly. There are great random tables in the Dungeon Master’s Guide and countless ones online, for names, it doesn’t get better than Fantasy Name Generators, for loot 5e Loot Shop, and for everything else and more Donjon is the place to go.
5. Use Props and Tools Sparingly:
I could harp on this for hours, it is a main point in my blog post about the essential items needed to play D&D, which is actually very little. But, while elaborate props and maps can enhance immersion, they can also be time-consuming for a DM, and expensive. As long as your group isn’t accustomed to them, don't hesitate to lean on theater of the mind and simple sketches when necessary. And, if you’re having trouble getting a session put together, just make one or two in a row that have less combat and adventure and are more focused on social interaction.
6. Steal Shamelessly:
Back in point three, I referenced The Prancing Pony from The Lord of the Rings. As a writer and creator, fighting the fight against plagiarism is embedded deep in me and something I take seriously. However, DMing is one of those places where it doesn’t matter. If you’re not making an actual play podcast or planning on writing your campaign down as the next big fantasy novel then steal, baby, steal.
Take ideas shamelessly from books, movies, video games, or other campaigns. Me, I like Devi from The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss, so my campaign has its own version complete with her harsh credit system; I tweaked it here and there, but anyone who has read the books would recognize it in a moment. There's no shame in borrowing plots, characters, or settings and adapting them to your campaign's needs. It's a time-tested technique that can save you countless hours of brainstorming and if you’re not profiting off of it then no harm, no foul. Only problem you may run into is players recognizing the original material and getting ahead of you, but, if they’re not metagaming that should be no problem at all.
7. Don’t know everything:
By the gods is this a difficult habit to break. As a DM it is easy to feel that you have to know the answer to anything and everything your players may ask or do. I know I run into that feeling every time I am prepping a session. I’m creating an encounter or a social interaction and I try to think of all of the ways that they can solve the problem, that way if they have trouble or slip up I can gently nudge them.
I’ve quickly found that that is a waste of my time. I’m one person with one brain, they are four people with four brains, they will figure it out and likely in a way I – all alone, two glasses of wine deep on my couch – won’t. I just need to come up with a problem for them to solve, know that it is solvable, and let them do the rest. You should do that too, truly, letting go is hard but feels so much better once you’re at the table listening to the players come up with an answer.